A Bit of ‘In Camera’ Processing

In the last few years, most new digital cameras have some sort of  ‘in camera’ processing special effects on board. This post looks at one of the more useful ones – ‘dramatic tone’ on an Olympus EPL3.

These shots have been given a bit of a twist by being shot on a Sweet 35 Lensbaby and the two seem to complement each other nicely.

The processing (amongst other things) pulls out minor differences in mid tones – those clouds just looked plain white on the day. The effect can be previewed on the LCD and can produce a look which is similar to print dodging/burning,  film fogging or even strong flare.

What’s more, minor movements of the camera produce some major variations in the way these effects are distributed on the image – it’s quite fascinating! It can also be applied to a ‘normal’ RAW image using the Olympus supplied software ‘Viewer 2’ but without any fine tuning by moving the camera obviously.

The output from the process is in colour, but they seem to me to look better in mono – something done in DXO Filmpack choosing either one of the film profiles or the creative presets and tweaking the settings. To add a final finish a layer can be added too (see above)!

So, with the effect toned down a little, and with conversion to a mono image it’s quite useful and not just a novelty (which many of the others are). Just don’t use it for every shot!

As always these shots are taken for the book cover market, and all comments, critiques and questions are welcome.

Thanks for looking – hope you like them and they give you some creative ideas for your photography.

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